Who's Teaching Your School's Culture? The Culture You Protect Is the Culture You Create.

Every decision to protect a culture killer comes with a cost. The question is: who's paying for it?

Every school has a culture. Whether it's intentional or accidental, healthy or unhealthy, someone is teaching it every single day.

While leaders often focus on curriculum, instruction, and student achievement, culture is shaped just as much by the behaviors that are tolerated as by the expectations that are communicated.

The culture you protect is the culture you create.

Sometimes the greatest obstacle to school improvement isn't a lack of funding, professional learning, or instructional resources. Sometimes it's the adults who quietly undermine the very culture leaders are trying to build.

Before we go any further, let's make an important distinction.

I'm not talking about educators who ask hard questions or respectfully challenge an idea. Healthy organizations need those voices. Productive disagreement often leads to stronger decisions and better outcomes for students.

I'm talking about the adults whose patterns of behavior consistently diminish trust, discourage growth, and make it harder for others to do their best work:

• The adults who convince new teachers that enthusiasm is naïve.

• The adults who find a problem before they ever look for a solution.

• The adults who complain in private but rarely contribute in public.

• The adults who slowly convince everyone around them that excellence isn't worth pursuing because "nothing ever changes."

  
  

These are culture killers.

The difficult reality is that many leaders know exactly who they are.

I also understand why they're often allowed to remain.

Teacher shortages are real. Hiring qualified staff is difficult. Some communities face challenges that make recruitment even harder. Sometimes leaders are simply trying to keep classrooms staffed and schools functioning.

I understand that.

But protecting a culture killer doesn't come without a cost.

Every time disrespect goes unaddressed, someone else notices.

Every time negativity becomes the loudest voice in the room, someone else becomes quieter.

Every time toxic behavior is excused because someone is experienced, certified, or "good with kids," another educator begins questioning whether they belong there at all.

Culture killers don't just damage morale.

They become unofficial mentors for everyone watching.

New teachers are always learning the culture of a school. The question is whether they're learning it from leadership or from the adults leadership refuses to address.

But there is another reality we cannot ignore.

Sometimes the culture killer isn't sitting in the faculty meeting:

• Sometimes they're leading it.

• Sometimes it's a principal who leads through intimidation instead of trust.

• Sometimes it's an assistant principal who mistakes authority for influence.

• Sometimes it's an instructional coach who critiques far more than they coach.

• Sometimes it's a department chair who uses experience to silence new ideas instead of cultivating them.

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A teacher can influence a classroom.

A leader can influence an entire building.

That's why culture killers in leadership positions are often far more damaging. Their behavior doesn't just affect the people around them. It establishes permission for everyone else.

Leadership positions do not automatically create healthy cultures.

When negativity, favoritism, gossip, inconsistency, or disrespect comes from leadership, the damage is amplified because leaders model what is acceptable.

People rarely do what leaders say.

They do what leaders consistently demonstrate.

When the culture killer holds a leadership title, teachers often stop speaking up. Innovation slows. Trust begins to erode. Eventually, even the strongest educators begin asking themselves whether they can continue doing meaningful work in an environment that no longer feels psychologically safe.

This is why culture is a leadership responsibility.

Not because leaders can control every personality in a building, but because they are responsible for protecting the conditions in which great teaching and meaningful collaboration can thrive.

The good news is this.

Culture is learned.

Which means culture can also be relearned.

Schools are not defined by the mistakes they've made. They're defined by the courage leaders have to address them:

• One courageous conversation can begin restoring trust.

• One clear expectation can begin changing behaviors.

• One leader willing to protect the right things can begin transforming an entire school.

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This isn't about creating a culture where everyone agrees.

It's about creating a culture where everyone is respected, held accountable, and united around a shared purpose.

It isn't about removing people because they challenge ideas. Healthy schools need people who ask thoughtful questions, respectfully disagree, and push leadership to think differently.

It is about refusing to normalize behaviors that erode trust, discourage growth, and make it harder for others to do the work students deserve.

Before schools can transform learning, they must first transform the conditions in which adults work. Healthy school culture isn't a byproduct of school improvement. It's the foundation that makes school improvement possible.

School culture is never built by accident.

It is built one conversation, one expectation, and one leadership decision at a time.

Because titles don't create culture.

Behaviors do.

Whether you're a teacher, instructional coach, assistant principal, principal, superintendent, or district leader, every interaction teaches someone what professionalism, collaboration, and leadership look like.

At the end of the day, this conversation isn't really about culture killers.

It's about leadership.

It's about having the courage to protect the conditions where great educators can thrive, meaningful collaboration can flourish, and students receive the very best of every adult in the building.

Because the culture you protect is the culture you create.

So I'll leave you with one final question.

When a new teacher walks into your building, who's teaching them your school's culture?